"Dearest Angel ...": A Father's Post-Abortion Journal of Hurt and Healing

by William Zimmerman

After suffering the traumatic loss of his child to abortion the day before his twenty-fifth birthday in 1999, William found himself in a mental and emotional whirlwind of despair and regret, of depression and guilt. Nothing could prepare him for the devastating experience of losing achild and the emotions he would encounter in the aftermath. The many thoughts and emotions that he experienced after the abortion were becoming far too much for his mind to contain. Eighteen months after the abortion, he began writing letters to the child he lost as a desperate cry for help.Realizing the purpose behind the pain, William battled every emotional demon imaginable to document his journey. He knew he wasnt alone in his grief. He wanted others who have suffered from the loss of their children to abortion to know that they too, were not alone. He worked on this journey over the course often years. He has seen the depths of an emotional hell, in which he questioned his own will to live.Dearest Angel is the document of his journey; a journey of regret and repair, of grief and gratitude, and of hurt and healing.

200 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 14, 2010

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and deeply moving, the author opens up about his feelings of grief, sadness, and guilt following his partner's abortion. Through journal entries, letters to his child, and poetry, he conveys the depth of feeling a man can go through after an abortion. I applaud the author for writing about such a controversial topic in such an honest way. So many people think men have nothing to say about abortion and should have no part in the abortion issue. The author stays away from politics completely and never takes a strong stand of "pro-life" or "pro-choice" and to me, that made the book even more compelling. I think this is an excellent book to read if you are a man whose partner had an abortion who is saddened by it, or anyone who wants to understand the complex and painful feelings some men can have after a partner's abortion.

One of the author's biggest regrets was that he did not tell his girlfriend he wanted her to keep the baby. It has been so ingrained into us that abortion is a woman's choice, and no one else's, that he was afraid to tell her what he thought when in reality she may have just been waiting for him to voice an opinion. When men say nothing, women often assume they do not care about them, or the child, and in this author's case, that was far from the truth. I am so sorry he didn't reveal his thoughts to her and appeal for the baby, maybe everything would have turned out differently. But I don't fault him at all for just keeping quiet and allowing the whole decision to fall on her shoulders- as I said, the pro-choice movement has done a great job convincing men they have no say.